CHAPTERS IN CLAY
- Loren
- Feb 28
- 3 min read
Updated: Mar 1
Throughout my relationship with Jenny, I never once saw her drink coffee. Tea was her hot drink of choice. Good Earth tea — Sweet & Spicy, specifically — was her favorite, though she always enjoyed trying teas of all kinds. She liked it enough that she made sure we never ran out. Of all the vendors who would deliver it to our door, Walmart had the lowest price. Amazon would deliver it too, but at a multiple of the cost. So Jenny signed up for a Walmart+ subscription just to make sure her Good Earth tea arrived regularly and reasonably. That was her — practical, thoughtful, and true to what she liked.
Tea was her ritual — morning, afternoon, sometimes evening when the day allowed.
I knew her to drink from one of four mugs — mugs that have been with her — and later with us — for three decades now. Three of them she had obtained before we met in 1998. Each represents a chapter of her life — places she lived, accomplishments she earned, communities she loved.
The first is a mug from Pittsburgh. It represents her years there as a mechanical engineer at Westinghouse — the beginning of her professional career. She formed friendships in Pittsburgh that would last the rest of her life. It was also there that she began to sense a different calling. While living in Pittsburgh, she decided she wanted to become an attorney.
Pittsburgh meant something to her. She spoke of it fondly and was quick to defend the city if anyone spoke ill of it.
Once, years later while working at Siemens, she brought the mug to the office so she could enjoy her tea there. She left it soaking in the breakroom sink, and it disappeared. For nearly a month, it was gone. She despaired that it had been lost for good. Then, just as quietly as it had vanished, it reappeared. She brought it home that day — and never took it back to work again. It was then that I knew how much that mug meant to her.
The mug symbolizes that chapter and her connection to the city.
The second mug is from UCLA Law School, where she studied from 1994 to 1997. It was at UCLA Law that Jenny formed her strongest and most lasting friendships. Law school was demanding, formative, intense. She earned that mug. It stands for discipline and determination. Also, because UCLA was the one school Jenny and I had in common, we became fans of UCLA sports and stayed that way for years.
The third mug is from the UCLA Law Review, where she served as Managing Editor. Simply making Law Review is a competitive process; becoming Managing Editor is rarer still. It was likely her proudest professional accomplishment. When I am in a bragging mood about Jenny, this is the fact I point to. I know how much it meant to her because she framed the certificate that declared her position as Managing Editor. That mug represents not only distinction, but the discipline and intellectual rigor it took to earn it.
The fourth mug is from KUSC, dated 1999 — just after we met. By then, our lives had begun to intertwine. Jenny loved classical music. She once told me that if she weren’t an attorney, she would have wanted to be a DJ or radio host for a classical music station. She believed she had the right kind of calm, soft voice for it — and she was right. The KUSC mug reflects that softer, artistic side of her — the part that found beauty and calm in music. It also quietly marks the beginning of the years we shared.
These four mugs were constants. They held her tea through seasons of work, rest, music, conversation, and quiet thought. They were ordinary objects, but they quietly witnessed so much.
They are small things. But they carry entire chapters inside them.
I'm including a photo of Dylan I took this afternoon, when his UCSB rugby team took on UC Santa Cruz at Santa Cruz.
